This is a small update to say, I think I’m finally going to start working on 2121: The End of Syfe again. But very slowly. I’ve been in a funk that is starting to escalate, mostly due to various doctor visits and school orientation coming. I’ll post again when I know more about what’s going on, but the options on the table are a little disturbing, although not dangerous. My orientation is Tuesday, so it’s hopeful that once it’s done I’ll be a little less on edge.

I want to write, but it’s difficult with my brain so clogged up. Right now I’m attempting to wipe my laptop at Mum’s so it stops lagging so much when I write. I definitely won’t make my goal of the end of June for this book, but hopefully July? If I can get the wheels turning faster. Who knows. My little brain is so raw from everything going on and it’s barely started.

I realize I don’t exactly use social media very often, which some people find surprising considering the amount of time I spend on a computer. I’ve just never been particularly interested in it all, honestly. So there’s long gaps between my activity on various sites, particularly when I’m unable to really deal with society’s… things. ::shudder::

Anyway! I’ve got news! Currently my books should be removed from distribution while their newest editions get proofed. Might take a week or two. Once that happens, I will be running a free e-book promo for them (Kindle only, sorry, but the app is free! ::nudge::) in anticipation of book 3,2121: Enter the Void, being released. Literally the only reason it’s not sitting in proofing yet is because I’m sitting on the preview of book 4, making sure it’s as up-to-date with book 4 as possible. I foresee that to drop in September, in which case, another promo will run. These are being done in the hopes that, one, I gain readers, and two, possibly gaining reviews for the books. I could really benefit from reviews, y’all. Seriously. It’d be a huge help, for my book’s stats as well as my own understanding of what people liked and didn’t like about my writing!

For some odd reason the site page for the 2121 books on Facebook has been garnering followers (I assume people just horde likes? I dunno how FB works at all, most days), so I’m going to try and keep that feed active as well, with announcements about promos and activities and the like. At the very least, I’ve made the page more relevant to what it’s for and updated the look of it to match the current branding.

Yo! I haven’t spent enough time keeping track of the site to post an actual post about my writing in about a year, which is silly, but that’s a thing that happens. Bearing that in mind, I’ll go on a bit of a rant here.

2121: Enter the Void (which is book 3 of the 4-book series) is actually done with editing. It took much, much longer than expected, having been dropped from editing by my routine editor due to life, and dropped from editing from another friend due to life, and put on the back-burner by me. For me to properly do a real, thorough edit of it at that point, I needed time to reread the first two books and make sure I had everything fresh in my mind to tackle it, which I finally made the time for this year. The print files are finished and ready to be set up for printed proofs, but… there’s a slight bump in the road.

It’s been a year since I tested the waters for mainstream publishing, and I recently found good sources of places to try and offer up Redford to. One in particular I’m really hopeful for, takes a few months to get to reviewing your manuscript. Suffice to say, I don’t want to put out a book for self-publishing when I’m offering the first book to be considered by a publisher. So it’ll be a few more months before 2121: Enter the Void is self-published. I don’t have high hopes for being noticed, but I like to do things right, so it means holding on for now. BUT, it is fully ready to go out, rest assured.

What took me so long to get around to editing the book was, in fact, another book entirely. And no, it wasn’t book 4. I couldn’t bring myself for the life of me to work on that monster. No, see, I had this odd dream that I had to write down because it was just so… interesting for me that I couldn’t pass it up. That project as it stands is titled Winter Red (and I don’t foresee that changing). It’s a thriller, not actually the first I’ve begun but certainly the first I’ve written more than 10k words on. Currently it’s clocked in at 51k, which I had promised myself I would swap to 2121: The End of Syfe at that point, and I have. It’d be a waste to have the first three books so fresh in my mind and not try to finish off the series.

In regards to Winter Red, my normal readers are not really available to me for it because of its genre, but I do have people reading it over to see if it holds any interest. I’d like to confess something that’s come about because of it: I actually feel happy with it. Don’t get me wrong, I am happy with Redford overall, but I am not happy with its execution in terms of… its age? You have to remember, I started writing the first book in 2004, and I’ve had plenty of time to mature in both mind and writing since. I have to walk between my current style of writing and keeping the series consistent with the original material, which sacrifices a bit of my pride in the outcome. I feel as though I could do much better, given a second chance. The simplest way to gauge this, as a reader, is my treatment of Raquel and her friends throughout the series. They barely featured in the first book, and when they did, they were mostly annoyances without personality. I tried to slowly and politely rectify this as the series continued. They were given stronger purpose towards the plot, actual personalities, and interacted on different levels with the rest of the crew. In all likelihood, if I were given the chance to sort of… “correct my mistakes” with the first book, it’d probably gain about 40k of words. Considering it’s about 20-30k shorter than the other two, it’s entirely too tempting.

Now, I am working on book 4, and yes, it’s the end of 2121. Literally. The series was named that because the events would culminate at the end of that year for the characters. But that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily the end of the worlds or the characters themselves. I have other side projects that may see the light of day that exist in its universe. One I’d particularly like to see through is about the original incarnation of Ezrael, and the fall of Old Judais. We’ll see. In the meantime, book 4 is sitting at 31k words as of this morning. Even if I finish it soon and do a hard edit on it and everything, it too will be held down for the sake of trying to find a publisher for the series overall.